Ex-grifter, bisexual Nora is not having a good day. Her ex-boyfriend, Wes, walks in on her kissing her current girlfriend and their mutual friend, Iris. Before the three can work it out, however, a bank robbery breaks out and they're all taken hostage. With no guarantee that they'll make it out alive, Nora must make use of a past she’s tried to leave behind to save Wes, Iris, and herself. Drawing on her childhood spent with her abusive, con artist mother, can Nora save the day? Sharpe does a great job of balancing Nora's childhood trauma related to psychological and sexual abuse with her present-day situation. The book is action-packed and adds a lot of mystery into the plot. The pacing is funky in the last act, but characters are complex and engaging. Older readers who like mystery/thrillers and action plots with underlying childhood trauma will want to pick up this one.

I really enjoyed this book. Nora, her ex-boyfriend, and her current girlfriend get caught up in a bank heist that quickly goes very, very wrong. The story of the heist is interwoven with Nora's childhood, where she grew up as a child of a con artist. From the time she was small, her mother has given Nora different names and identities to help her con bad men out of money. Each girl gives Nora the skills she needs to survive and get the other hostages out of the bank.

Normally a story that bounces around in time this much would annoy me, but Sharpe balances the shifts in time with the current narrative and allusions to things that will happen to Nora's past self before her sister saves her from the con artist ways of their mother. I really appreciated the personalities of Nora's friends and how they were developed with their own voices in a way that felt natural and like a teenager. This is a fun book with tension, character development, and some unexpected moments.

We read this as a possible nominee for our internal Printz Award committee. It narrowly missed being in the top 10 nominees.

Oh wow! I'm so sad I put this book off for way too long. It is a must read, and needs more attention.

This story is like an onion that kept peeling itself open, and I'm not even sure if we really got down to the center of it and discovered fully who our MC is. As she is a lost girl, lost in her own past life (lives?).

We start with Nora, who tells us right away, that is not her name. Because she has had many names. And her name is the one secret she keeps close. She is a daughter of a con artist. Her mom. She runs a sweetheart con, but she picks bad men, where they are doing something shady so once they get conned, they wouldn't reach out to cops. Till one day her mom actually falls for one of the bad men. It doesn't end well.

Nora, as she wants to be known, finds herself in a bank heist, part of the group of people that get stuck inside with the bad guys. And she wants to get out alive. She will do anything to get out alive. And she tells us her past story, her past lives trying to explain how she came to be smart enough to smart out a couple of baddies.

It was a phenomenal story. Full of pain, and love, and survival. It is worth a read! It broke my heart more than once.

Damn.
Suffice to say this book entirely caught me by surprise, which is really a given considering I didn't expect much going into it. And somehow, this managed to slap me in the face several times over and dunk me in ice water, all in a deliciously intriguing way.
I immediately found myself terribly fond of the characters, and there's real humanity in each of their features and flaws that I find a lot of similar books missing. Nora's internal conflict was heart-wrenchingly relatable and the consistency of it really impressed me. Too often I see YA giving characters really interesting and complex conflicts, only for it to be thrown away in favor of the femme fatale "aesthetic," but Sharpe conquers this perfectly.
The only thing I would cherry-pick would be the pacing of the robbery. The whole story is very fast-paced, and that's part of its appeal, but I sometimes found myself zoning out at moments where it felt like it was happening in real-time. I guess real-time is too slow for me, but that is entirely up to preference.
Altogether, I highly recommend this and I will be looking for more from Sharpe in the future. I also think that no matter where you lean, you might as well give it a shot, because you will know if you like it very quickly. Take that as you will, and happy reading!

I just totally loved this dark YA thriller! I just loved this sapphic story with these three teens trying to make it in-spite of the trauma and abuse and all the odds. A beautiful story of courage that had me on the edge of my seat.

This was a *fun* twisty thriller. Fun, in that the characters are wonderful and you'll come away wanting to befriend all of them. But it also deals with a lot of trauma and real issues that can definitely not be described as "fun." Its genre bending, but all around a great read.

Wow. This book was incredible! The pacing, plot, and writing were all elements that were incredibly done. I will never forget this story and will recommend this book to everyone!

Now this is the kind of YA read I've been looking for! Tell me a book is about a con artist and I'll immediately add it to my TBR. Add in a bank heist, I'm sold!

This sapphic story centers around three characters just trying to get through their teenage life full of abuse and neglect. I truly loved Nora, Iris, and Wes and thought the author did an amazing job developing all their stories. The story flips between Nora's past life and the present bank heist. It is such a unique story and I'm really excited to hear it's being adapted for Netflix and starring Millie Bobby Brown!

This is definitely one to check out.

I absolutely adored this super thrilling feminist story. Lots of fun and powerful. Can’t wait to see it adapted to TV

I was planning to read this in e-arc format but ended up getting a physical copy of it. Although I think it's too long for reluctant readers, I am really excited to read it in print and hopefully recommend it to a lot of teens.

Why is this book not all over the place?! I loved every minute of this dark YA novel.

Nora is the daughter of a con woman who has taught her very well. Nora has lived so many lives and had to keep so many secrets... All in the name of the grift. When her mom falls in love and marries one of her marks.. Nora calls her sister Lee (who got away from their mom years ago).

Fast forward 5 years.. Nora, her ex boyfriend/best friend Wes, and her girlfriend Iris are at a bank and get taken hostage. But Nora knows how to con and she can get them out.

The robbery takes place in a day but we get to look into the many lives Nora has lived before. I felt so bad for her and the way she was brought up . The marks her mom had were always such scum. The ending was so crazy and it made me wonder if we could possibly get more story 🤞

Thank you to the publisher and PenguinTeen for the free Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book just blew my mind. Like I literally imagined every scene in my head like a movie. Nora is a daughter of a con artist. Her mother thought her everything she knows and uses it when she, her girlfriend and ex boyfriend are caught in the middle of a bank heist. Action packed, sass, heart break, amazing character development and parts that just make you want to scream. I mean this book is wonderfully written. One of my favorite reads this year. I'm not writing more because if you haven't read this book yet, you need to.

I really enjoyed this book! I like that we were shown the complexity of being in a bisexual relationship. I find that not of lot of books show bisexuality as much so it was very refreshing as I can relate directly to it being bisexual myself.

The intensity of this book was top-notch. You are constantly in this very serious situation while it keeps giving you little flashbacks for backstory and I was here for every second of it. I think that Nora was a fantastic protagonist and she really had me rooting for her.

I have heard that this is being turned into a movie and I will 100% be watching it. The book kept me hooked from start to finish so I can imagine the movie will be just as good. I want to read more by Tess Sharpe after this. Her writing style was a lot of fun and I am excited what other books she has to offer.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure how much I would like this book after the first 50 pages, but then it picked up! I was really blown away. Is that because I lost hope early? I’ll never know. But what I do know is this book was great.

This was one heck of a YA. Part psychological thriller, part coming of age story, this was one I recommend for a variety of readers. I never quite knew where this was going but I loved it!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book.

Wow, this book was wild! I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but I definitely got more than I thought I would from this book. Nora grew up with her con artist mother, and has been forced to live a life of cons since she was 6. When she and her best friend and girlfriend end up at the bank while it's being robbed, it gets wild. Just from the day, you get to delve into her last and the identities she's had over the years and the events that led her to be here and where she goes from there. I can't say too much without giving things away, but I loved this book.

Ya, thriller, mystery, and romance to name a few things, oh you must get this genre bender in your hands asap because its the cream of the crop of books!! This books, the plot, and the characters gets all the flowers!!

I cannot express how deeply obsessed I was with this book. Read it in two sittings without trying. It was truly spectacular. Riveting. The writing was accessible and didn’t make the reader feel stupid for not catching something. Also not in my general wheelhouse, but have heavily recommended this book since receiving the arc. Have not heard back from one person saying they didn’t also love it. An absolute hit. Would make an amazing miniseries.

Wow this was a crazy ride and just found out this will be adapted by Netflix with Millie Bobby Brown. Nora (and her many identities) has lived a hard life because her mother raised her like her...to be a con artist. This is a very fast read because you are dying to know what will happen. On top of being a great story there’s great representation in the book: bisexual main character and endometriosis.

I was firstly intrigued by the premise and the short dialogues made it an easy and fast-paced read, however the execution didn't work for me. I found the narrative quite disjointed and got lost along the way.

This is a unique novel that many readers will enjoy and even though it wasn't for me, I am still very excited to watch the TV adaptation. In addition, I appreciate the bisexual rep.